You're absolutely insane, but I still love you
Finding the fun playing a voice-of-reason in improv scenes by being curious, compassionate and allowing the unusual character to do their thing
One way ‘game of the scene’ is taught and performed in long-form improv comedy is as an unusual point-of-view held by one character, with the other character acting as a voice of reason (historically known as the ‘straight-man’ for want of a much better term).
The Voice of Reason (VOR) character is vital to help ground the scene in the parameters of normal human behaviour. We have to believe and understand the world these characters inhabit, in order to recognise the Unusual Point of View (UPOV) and unusual and funny.
Even in a scene where two peas-in-a-pod have the same idiotic point of view, we still need to ground the scene in something relatable. Statler and Waldorf are bang out of order loudly-heckling the Muppets shows from the Royal Box, but they’re grounded by the general idea that some older folks are (a) a bit grumpy, (b) have strong opinions, and c) aren’t shy of sharing them loudly.
Confronted by an UPOV, the Voice of Reason character can find it absolutely mad and hard to justify. But it’s best for the VOR improviser to try to sympathetically disagree, and understand where the UPOV is coming from, than to shut down their behaviour completely. If the VOR comes down too hard on the UPOV, we have no scene. No reasonable human wants to be chastised constantly for trying to be themselves.
This is basically the underlying principle of ‘Yes And…’. An improviser doesn’t have to literally say ‘Yes’ to absolutely everything in the scene, but we do need to say ‘Yes’ to the reality that’s being created. To say ‘Yes’ to the unusual point-of-view.
If you’re playing the VOR, be facilitative. In as grounded a way as possible, keep making things happen. Your improviser should keep giving the UPOV opportunities to do their thing, even if your character would rather they didn’t and reacts accordingly. You can still be fascinated by the UPOV, love them for who they are, and think they’re insane. In fact, in most scenes, unless there’s a very grounded reason why a VOR would still be a firm disciplinarian, it’s the best approach to keep the scene moving forward and make new discoveries.
If you’re playing the UPOV character, trust that opportunities will come along to play your UPOV without trying too hard. Even though you’re the UPOV, you still have a responsibility to keep the scene loaded with things we can relate to and care about. Your VOR scene-partner will thank you for it, since it’ll be easier for them to treat your character like a real person if you mostly act like one, except in the one specific way we’re playing for comedy.
In a peas-in-a-pod scene with two or more UPOVs, both improvisers have to be somewhat sensible and keep actively grounding the scene, while also recognising we need to do the thing better than Angela Bassett. This difference in this kind of scene is that both improvisers ought to be absolutely reveling in their insanity or focused on grounding the scene at the same time. Attempting to have one VOR and one UPOV when the scene started with both characters being unusual will be confusing and unsatisfying.
In all scenes, we have to ground things purposefully, but also carefully: we still want fun things to happen! Your character can find the UPOV utterly mad, but they must allow at least a little bit of madness.